Page 129 of Now to Forever

“Okay?!”

This is . . . unexpected.

“I had a baby, Ford,” I snap. “Yours.”

His lips roll inward between his teeth before he exhales and drops his head back on the headrest. “I know.”

“You know?” I repeat.

His brows pinch. “You just told me.”

Jokes?

I scoff. Pick my fingernails more aggressively.

“What do you expect me to say?” he asks through an almost laugh. “It was twenty years ago. A lot happened. You made a choice. Probably the right one. We weren’t ready. He looks happy.”

“Wren show you the cuts?” I demand.

“She did.”

“I knew about them,” I bite out. “And didn’t tell you.”

“Mm,” he says, considering. “I didn’t love that, but Wren explained everything. I get it. You did what I asked you to do. She said you were checking her every day.”

Irritation starts grating my skin away. He isn’t yelling. He’s . . . what the hell is he? Fine?

“She hates me.” I’m fully pissed.

He’s calm. “She doesn’t.”

“She does,” I argue. “She all but said those exact words.”

“She doesn’t. My mom told us what happened at Orchard Fest.” He raises his eyebrows, lips fighting a smile. “And exactly what you said to the Letts girl.”

Charlene—full of surprises.

I don’t dwell on that.

“And my flying fists of fury at Liberty Tap?”

A smile tugs at his lips. “Guess we won’t know the fallout until Monday. I told Jessica if she didn’t press charges, I wouldn’t go to the school and get her daughter expelled for what she did to Wren.”

He’s making this impossible.

“You’re a cop.”

At this, he laughs. “And?”

“And we can’t be together!” I shout, punctuating each word with a smack of the steering wheel. “I meant it when I told you we were done. We are.”

“Ahhh,” he says, grotesquely calm. “I thought that’s what this was.”

“Whatwhatwas?”

“Scotty.” He pushes one hand across my face and into my hair. “You and Wren got in a fight. She used her tongue as a teenage weapon of mass destruction—which reminds me of someone else I know.” A smile whispers across his lips “You told me you never want to see me again. After you told me you loved me. Which you confirmed to everyone at the LL meeting.” I open my mouth, but this moron doesn’t stop talking. “You take me out here and tell me about Blue—which I have a lot of big feelings about—but I wonder if you were thinking I couldn’t take it.”

Damn him.

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